Staying Power

The staying power of certain age-old stories continues to strike me with awe and appreciation. When those stories are retold in various forms of artistic communication, we see our continued need to be in touch with our deep urges and desires, and to relearn (hopefully with a more resonant understanding), where those urges may lead us, good and bad.

Enter if you dare into this heart-wrenching narrative of first love, its capacity for self-annihilation, where two become one—only to be destroyed by the petty hatreds and jealousies of those in power. (Here it is the parents.) Youthful bliss, hopes and dreams come crashing down, crushed by the burdens and missteps of age-old prejudices, happenstance and uncontrolled tempers. When all is said and done, when the beautiful Prokofiev score ends, let us hope we have within ourselves to own our capacities and actions not only for bliss, but for wickedness and pain, for destruction of innocence, and for the lifelong process of forgiveness.

While watching this work’s creation by our astute, sensitive choreographic associate Steven McMahon, I have witnessed a significant step forward in his understanding of human nature and ballet’s ability to express that nature. This has been apparent to our dance artists also, and their responses show their growth as they reach deeply into a wellspring of discovery. This choreographer is not one who glosses over the weight of the story he is asked to illuminate. He is a young person with an old soul.